Running From More Than Fate
by starfire7
Summary: "My family has been in hiding for more than eight years, since I was two. But then we were in terrible danger... from them. After years of running, my parents left. Though I’m safe now, something has been disturbing me. Now I’m afraid..."
1. Prologue: I don't wanna go

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New fic! We're taking a break from the Runaway Angel and going onto a new one. Since Runaway Angel is now finished, we have time for a new one. Once this is finished, we'll move onto the sequel, ok?

Disclaimer: Don't own CCS, never will, but please don't take the idea from this story.

Summary: "My family has been in hiding for more than eight years, since I was two. But then we were in terrible danger... from them. After years of running, my parents left. Though I'm safe now, something has been disturbing me. Now I'm afraid..."

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~RUNNING FROM MORE THAN FATE ~ PROLOGUE~

Fujitaka brushed a few strands of auburn hair back from his daughter's forehead. She was sleeping peacefully and her small hand clutched at the blanket beside her, her arms wound around the stuffed bear lying beside her in a vice-like grip, as though she never wanted to let go. Her longish auburn hair splayed out behind her, her eyes shut tightly. She seemed relaxed, but only to a point, as if she knew something was going to happen. 

He pulled up the covers over her gently and let them lie to just over her shoulders. As he touched her cheek gently whispering a few words of farewell, she shivered. Removing his hand, Fujitaka noticed that it was covered with damp sweat. His eyes then travelled to his daughter, who was still shivering and beads of perspiration were now breaking out on her forehead. She was getting hot. _She might have a fever!_ he realised in alarm.

He heard a soft creaking sound. His gaze turned to the door where his wife stood. "How is she?" she asked, coming to stand by his side.

Fujitaka was sitting on his daughter's bed, observing her. His eyes were filled with sadness as he watched. He didn't want to leave her. He wanted to watch her grow up, live her life. But that had been made impossible for them. If he and his wife wanted to keep their daughter and son safe, they had to leave immediately. But they couldn't leave without saying goodbye, no matter what the cost. They had someone coming for the children in the morning. They were going to look after them from now on, especially their daughter. She needed care, special care. For the past few days, she had been waking up in the middle of the night with disturbing dreams. She had said that she had felt herself falling and then she had woken up with a sense of longing and loss, all mingled in with confusion. It confused both him and his wife. "No change," he said quietly, so as to not wake her up.

Nadeshiko looked down at her daughter silently. They had to leave. There was no other choice. Their hunters were on the prowl again and would hunt them down soon. Settling here, they had thought that they would be safe. They now knew that was not true. Everywhere they went, wherever the program tried to hide them, they were always found and had to move. It broke her heart to see her daughter and son have to go through so many changes, and at a point in their lives where it might have made a difference forever. They had settled in Tomoeda, hoping that this was the last shift that they would have to make. And now they had been found again. There had to be a weak point in the program somewhere, someone had to be giving out information of their whereabouts.

They had even undergone appearance changes, so they would look different. Dying of hair, coloured contacts, haircuts. But they had refused to change either their daughter or their son. They had stayed the same and that was what might alert the predators of their location.

It hurt. It honestly hurt to see what their children had to go through.

There was a soft knock at the door. A combination of three knocks that were each different. It was the communication system that was used to tell who was at the door. There was someone from the WPP (witness protection program) at the door and they had come to get Fujitaka and Nadeshiko out of Tomoeda.

Nadeshiko nodded her head towards the door, whispering to Fujitaka, "Everything will be ok. They'll be fine."

He nodded wordlessly.

Nadeshiko went to get the door. She opened it and standing before her was Tadashi Minami. "We have to go now," he said quietly, urgently.

Nadeshiko nodded understandingly and went to get her husband.

"Fujitaka, we have to go now," she said urgently as she arrived at the door to her daughter's bedroom.

"Yes," he whispered, barely audible. He stood up from where he was watching his daughter and left her bedroom. "Are you sure that they'll be here in the morning?"

"Positive."

"Good then."

"I know that you'll miss them, but what we're about to do is for the best. They'll get over our absence within a few days, guaranteed."

"I hope so."

"They will."

"I hope you're not wrong about this Nadeshiko…"

"I don't want to leave just as much as you do, but if we are to protect the children, this is what we have to do. Come."

"Ok."

And the door shut behind them with a click.

Upstairs, in a small bedroom, a young girl lay sleeping, unaware of what she was to find in the morning.

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That's the prologue. Any questions, please R+R!!

Karisa Temura and Hikari Kamiya


	2. Chapter One: No, Why?

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Disclaimer: Don't own CCS.

I know it's a very very short chapter, but I'm writing with writer's block here, very much a big lack of inspiration. Some of this was written earlier, and it's pretty obvious to tell those parts, but some of it was just written, and I'm low on inspiration and ideas people. Gomen nasai. Rakiura, I have the ideas, but not the words to put on paper, or in this case, computer... the future's not looking so great writing wise. This is not going to be a good year... at least one of them is finished and I still have another *thinks* four stories to finish, and most of them are just beginning... I think I'll reserve the Run, Suppi, Run! one for when I have writer's block, like this time...

On with the fic!

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~Running From More Than Fate ~ Chapter One~

~~Dream Sequence~~

Small sounds of rushing water alerted the girl to new awarenesses. "What...?" she trailed off as she tossed the covers off her bed and jumped off it. She ran downstairs to see her mother and father sitting at the table. They smiled at her.

"Hello, Sakura," they greeted her.

"Morning," she said back, looking at them quizzically. What was going on?

"What's with the look?" Nadeshiko asked.

Sakura shook her head. No, she wasn't seeing things. She sat down at the table, staring at the breakfast that was on it.

"Mama? Papa?" she started. "What...?" but she didn't say anything more after that. When she looked up, they were gone. "Mama? Papa? Where are you...?" she called. She stood up abruptly and ran through the house, but they weren't there. In their place were faces that she remembered from when she was very young. She didn't know who they were though. Sakura thought hard. Who were these strange people?

And then realisation hit home. They were the people that were hunting her family. The ones that had forced them to make so many moves. The ones that had hunted them down everywhere that they had gone, even as they tried to make their family safe. She would curse the day when they would rush in and kill off her family. She would make them pay. Oh yes she would.

She the flashed to another place. As Sakura looked around, she recognised the room. It was her room, her room in this house.

Then one face arose and she saw who it was. Arinori Hiraki. The head. He had a dagger in his hand and he was standing over her bed, over her sleeping form. Sakura yelled at her sleeping self to wake up, but it was useless. She wouldn't. Her sleeping self couldn't hear her.

And it was then that the dagger swung towards Sakura's sleeping form...

~~End of Dream Sequence~~

She woke up, confused. In the morning, there were usually sounds of water rushing as her mother used the shower. Or sounds of her father cooking breakfast, or her brother listening to the radio. But this time, she couldn't hear anything. There was deathly silence all throughout the house and it freaked her somewhat.

Something was definitely wrong. She tossed the covers that lay over her aside and jumped out of bed. She stopped by the mirror for a second to see if anything had changed. No, she still looked the same. Shortish auburn hair, green eyes. No changes there. Then what was it? She frowned slightly as she walked through the house to the kitchen. There, where she had expected to see her father and mother, there was someone else. Someone familiar, but someone who she had not seen in a very long time. 

"Granny, where's Mum and Dad?" she asked warily.

The old woman just looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid that they're gone, Sakura, they left."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and then tears welled up. "What?" she said, barely audibly. "They're gone?" and she looked at her brother who was standing near.

He just nodded.

"No..." Sakura whispered, looking from her granny to Touya and back again. "They just can't be." And it was then that Sakura remembered the dream that she had been having, the endless feeling of helplessness, loss and longing. The one that had been confusing her for weeks on end. "It can't be!" she yelled and ran back up to her room. She slammed the door shut behind her and threw herself down on the bed. "Why did you leave?!" she yelled. "Why!?"

She buried her face in her pillow, huge wracking sobs shivering her small body as she wept. "Mum... Dad... why did you leave...?" 

She cried time and time again, until there were no more tears left to shed.

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Fujitaka looked at his wife. "Are you sure we did the right thing?" he asked her for the tenth time.

"Yes, I'm sure we did. If we had stayed, they would have got them. You know we were only protecting them. This is the only way."

"I know, I know. I just wish that there was some other way..."

"We all do, Fujitaka, we all do," Nadeshiko said lowly to her husband as Tadashi drove them further and further away from Tomoeda. "Okaa-san should be there by now," Nadeshiko checked her watch, "and Sakura would just be waking up."

"I hope our leave hasn't affected her too much."

"As do I, Fujitaka. As do I."

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Mama... Papa... Sakura thought. _Where are you now?_

A knock at the door sounded softly. "It's ok, Sakura... they'll be back."

"How can you be sure?"

"I just know," and then Granny got up and left the room.

It was then that Sakura was rocked with another vision.

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TO BE CONTINUED...

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One word. Short. This was definitely short and I'm very sorry about that. Gomen. I blame writer's block. That's all. I won't keep you any longer.

Hikari Kamiya


	3. Chapter Two: Grieving

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New chapter. Short chapter. On with it, the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Be short, like this story. I don't own CCS, CLAMP does, but please don't take this plot.

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~Running From More Than Fate ~ Chapter Two~

"Sakura, you have to go to school..." the older woman knocked on her granddaughter's door.

"I don't wanna go. I want Mama and Papa here." Sakura buried her head in her pillow. She had had all these visions for the past few days and they were confusing her.

First, there was the one about Arinori Hiraki. He had freaked her out. She didn't ever want to see him again. There was just something about him that really scared her. She wanted to freeze on the spot whenever someone said his name. She wanted to run away. She wanted to get out of there. But on top of all, she wanted to see her parents again. Even though it had only been a few days, there was still a deep ache in her heart to see them.

Seeing Granny was great, but she wasn't the same as Sakura's parents. Sakura hadn't been at school for the past few days and Sakura knew that her best friend, Tomoyo had been calling her house. But of course, there would be no answer, as Sakura was now living at Granny's with her brother, Touya.

Even though it didn't look like it, Touya was taking this just as hard as Sakura was, although he didn't show it as much. He had promised to protect his little sister from anything that was going to harm her. Nothing had tried yet, but he was certain that something would arise soon. Something would try to get her to help them or something. He didn't know what, where or when, but she was going to be under his watchful gaze at all times. She was the only family that he had left that he had grown up with.

Sakura had brought that everlasting annoying teddy bear of hers. She was constantly hugging it and it had always annoyed him.

Touya walked up behind his grandmother. "Is she out yet?" he asked softly, worried for his little sister.

The older woman shook her head. "No, she hasn't come out of there since we got back, only for food, water and to use the toilet. That's all."

Touya frowned slightly. His sister needed to be taking better care of herself. He knew that she was fragile, but that was no excuse to be treating herself like dirt.

"Sakura, could you please open the door?" Touya asked, tapping on it.

He heard a faint "No..."

"I'm coming in, Sakura."

"No, don't," she responded, but he opened the door anyway and stepped inside. He was worried about her and he needed to see how she was doing.

Touya saw that she was lying stomach down on the bed, her head turned to face the window, her hair incredibly matted and dishevelled. Her clothes were wrinkled. She had obviously been wearing them for a few days and hadn't even bothered changing. Strange...

"What's wrong, Sakura?" he asked softly, going to sit down on her bed beside her. He glanced down at her face and saw red marks on her cheeks where she had been rubbing them. She had obviously been crying and her eyes were tightly shut. It hurt him to see her like this. He just wanted to wipe all her tears away and reassure her that everything was going to be alright. But he knew that that would never happen, because as long as Arinori Hiraki was after them, they could never be safe...

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Is this to do with Mother and Father?"

"I miss them, Touya. I do."

"So do I, Sakura. But they'll always be with us in spirit, right?"

"Yeah... spirit."

And he noticed that she got a faraway look on her face. She opened her eyes and he could see that they were dull with sadness. No longer the twinkling bright emerald that they had been. No, since their parents had left, she, his younger sister, was drowning in her own sorrow. It hurt him to see her like this, there was nothing at all that he could do. Oh, how he wanted to help her. But that was impossible, especially after all that she had gone through. She was still going through it.

"Touya?" she asked.

He looked back at her as she turned her head to look at him. There was still that faraway look in her face and it was clear that it wasn't going to go away any time soon. That was for sure.

"Yeah?" he replied. "What is it?"

"So you think they'll come back?"

No, not that question. The one question that he couldn't answer, she had just asked. She honestly didn't know and he could see it.

With him it was the same way. He didn't know if they'd be back any time soon, or if they were even coming back, it was probably out of the question. Even since they had left, she had been feeling left out, even though she had been here a great number of times before. Was this all that she was going to do for the rest of her life?

He sincerely hoped not. She couldn't just lie in her room for the rest of the day, hoping that it would all go away. Because that was never going to happen. She knew it, he knew it and that was all that would come to pass.

He looked at the wall at the picture of their parents and his little sister. They were all hugging each other and were laughing and happy. He stood out to the side, watching them with a small smile on his face, knowing that that was one of the first times that they had felt truly safe, away from all this danger.

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If only you were here now, you could help her out of this slump, **Touya thought wistfully. **_She needs you now, but you left and you can't help. So you've left me to pick up the pieces. I only hope you know what you're doing..._

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Well, that's the end for this chapter. Please review!

Hikari Kamiya


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